Discover the new Stormz 🤩

Get ready for the unveiling of Stormz 2.0! This new version features a sleek and modern redesign, an innovative facilitation board, and many exciting new features and improvements. Keep reading to learn all about what's in store for the latest release of Stormz.

What was the aim?

After running for almost 10 years, we felt that it was time for Stormz to get a fresh update. So in 2020, we started by examining what was working well with Stormz and what needed improvement. After many discussions, we decided to focus on two main goals for Stormz V2:

Goal #1: Build on Stormz's strengths

We wanted to make Stormz even easier for participants and more sophisticated for advanced facilitators.

Goal #2: Eliminate Stormz's weaknesses

We focused on delivering a modern and enjoyable visual design, a flexible and easy-to-use facilitation board, and a progressive learning experience for facilitators.

With these goals in mind, we set out to create Stormz V2, the next generation of our popular facilitation tool.

So what have we improved?

This new release is packed with hundreds of improvements, from radical changes to minor tweaks! We can't list them all here, so instead we'll highlight some of our favorite enhancements.

The board: Reorder and rearrange your cards in a few clicks

The primary view of the workshop has been redesigned from the ground up. The board is now highly flexible and extensible, and it's still super easy to use. By default, cards are listed in columns that you can quickly move and resize. Want to regroup ideas into clusters? Add clusters on the fly and reorder them as needed. Want to make a SWOT matrix? No problem, just change the layout from columns to rows. You can even assign a different layout to different steps in your workshop—all in just a few clicks from the board or filter menus.

Facilitator bar: Your commands are always within reach

All the essential features you need to prepare and facilitate a workshop are gathered in a unique sidebar. This makes learning Stormz much easier. Plus, the collaborative area is always in view while you're changing parameters, so you can see the effects of your modifications quickly. So reassuring!

Steps: Prepare and update your workshop plan from within the board

Our powerful step system is still there (allowing the facilitator to prepare all the stages of the workshop ahead of time so they only have to "unfold" them during facilitation) but it's much quicker to set up and easier to use: The buttons for switching between steps are always accessible, and you can set up your steps right from the sidebar. We've tried it on our end, and we love it!

Instruction window: Always visible yet unobtrusive

Just like the (left) sidebar for facilitators, we placed important information, such as instructions, in a sidebar on the right. This way, participants can keep an eye on the instructions while using the board. As a facilitator, you can even command to open your participant's instruction sidebar anytime.

The interface: A modern, enjoyable visual design

Gaëtan, our UX designer, and our artistic director Agathe Boissonnot did an amazing job designing a new logo, picking a new set of colors, defining a new graphic charter, and setting the new UI principles of the platform.

You may also notice that we now have a cute mascot that provides advice or warnings.

And what's new?

Here are the most exciting new features, according to us:

Upload and Share Slides

You can now upload your slides (as images, 2 clicks from PowerPoint) to your workshop directly from the platform. This allows you to share your deck with participants without switching windows. Additionally, you can choose to make certain slides available to participants at all times, so they can access them easily.

Co-facilitator role: Delegate facilitation to someone else

Here is a new feature that many of you have asked for: the co-facilitator role. This allows you to delegate facilitation to someone else, even if they're not as familiar with the platform as you are.

With the co-facilitator role, you can give someone access to facilitate the workshop and switch from one step to another, but without the ability to change your settings. This is perfect for managing breakout rooms, or for slowly transitioning someone to become more autonomous on the platform.

Custom Card Ranking

In addition to sorting cards by creation date, random order, votes, and evaluation score, you can now use custom order. When this order is allowed, you and your participants can simply drag and drop cards to reorder them as you like. This provides even more flexibility and customization in how you organize and prioritize your cards.

How can you help? Spread the word!

You may not know it yet, but we are an independent team of facilitators and developers based in France. We focus all of our resources on making a better product and operate with a 0-euro marketing budget. So if you'd like Stormz to thrive, we're counting on you to spread the word about our new release. For example, you can like or repost one of our posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

What's Next? New Pricing!

We're working hard to make sure that V2 is as robust and reliable as possible, and we're also busy putting together some exciting new pricing plans that will make Stormz more accessible to everyone. We can't wait to share these plans with you, so stay tuned – they'll be revealed by the end of the year! (Update: the new pricing is here!)

In the meantime, keep enjoying all the great new features in V2. Happy facilitating!